The Bulwark Podcast — Episode Summary

Episode: Susan Glasser: The President Is Crazy and Delusional
Air Date: April 2, 2026
Host: Tim Miller
Guest: Susan Glasser (Staff Writer at The New Yorker, co-author of The Divider)

Episode Overview

This episode dives deeply into the unsettling aftermath of President Trump’s recent primetime wartime address regarding Iran, unpacking its chaotic messaging, the President's "alternate reality," the unraveling of American credibility abroad, and the collapse of fundamental norms in both foreign and domestic policy. Tim Miller and Susan Glasser explore the existential questions facing American democracy, international alliances, and the real-world impact of President Trump's leadership style, which they characterize as delusional, incoherent, and dangerous.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The President’s Iran Speech: Delusion and Magical Thinking

• Lack of Strategy or Coherence:

  • Trump’s address failed to detail clear objectives, explain the rationale for war, or provide any vision for its aftermath.
  • Instead, he deployed his standard “Trump Mad Libs” approach—blaming all predecessors (especially Barack Obama), touting personal greatness, and offering assurance without substance.
  • [02:42, Susan Glasser]: “Once you sort of understand the Trump mad libs approach to just about anything, you know, it's always going to include that section, whether it's the economy, whether it is inflation, whether it is a global pandemic, or whether it is launching a war of choice in the Middle East. ...All of my predecessors did everything wrong and I am right.”

• Alternate Reality and Stupefaction:

  • Trump claimed that Iran’s leadership had undergone regime change—though the president remained the same.
  • The volume of "BS" stupefies the public and makes it hard for media to call him out.
  • [07:32, Susan Glasser]: “The President of the United States is crazy and delusional. He put in writing that there's a great new president of Iran who's dealing with him. Who's the same fricking guy.”

• Disconnection from Reality and Audience Confusion:

  • Ordinary viewers, tuning in because of their everyday concerns (like rising gas prices), would have found the speech incomprehensible.
  • Trump didn’t discuss gas prices or the economy until 13 minutes into a 19-minute speech, and his remarks mirrored his pandemic-era wishful thinking: things would “just magically” improve.
  • [10:25, Susan Glasser]: “When he got to the gas prices section ... he basically said, don’t worry Americans, it will just naturally go back to a lower price. ...He is the president of magical thinking, basically.”

Absence of Planning, Internal Dysfunction, and Dangerous Incompetence

• Conflicting Objectives:

  • The State Department and the White House issued two different lists of war goals, even a month into the conflict—showcasing intense dysfunction.
  • [13:37, Susan Glasser]: “It’s not a miscommunication on day one, but ... 30 days into it ... they keep doing it multiple times in the same day. So I think it's pretty notable about the sort of internal dysfunction and incompetence of the team.”

• Authoritarian Isolation, Loyalty over Competence:

  • Trump's circle prizes loyalty and insularity—mirroring other autocrats—which leads to fundamental blunders, like ignoring risks with the Strait of Hormuz.
  • [15:59, Susan Glasser]: “...Authoritarian leaders who create a system around them that prizes loyalty over competence. That's one of the things that we are seeing here.”

Global Consequences: Shifting Alliances and Geopolitical Risks

• Potential Global Economic Crisis:

  • The instability provoked by the war, especially the threat to the Strait of Hormuz, is causing worldwide economic tremors—in Asia, Europe, and emerging markets like India.
  • [52:07, Susan Glasser]: “Friends don't let friends ruin their economy. ...America has become so dysfunctional that one cranky senior citizen in Mar a Lago can determine the fate of their economy thousands of miles away.”

• NATO and Alliance Breakdown:

  • Trump's open hostility toward NATO and inconsistency in leveraging the alliance is undermining its deterrence power.
  • European leaders are alarmed, and there’s a sense that Article 5 (mutual defense) is now “dead letter.”
  • [43:29, Susan Glasser]: “...There's a strong element of gaslighting here. ...Really remarkable that the guy who has spent the last decade in public life trashing both our allies and this specific alliance... is now furious that the person he's been kicking the shit out of isn't rushing to leap to his support.”

• Russia, China, Iran Axis and the Erosion of American Influence:

  • Trump’s actions are strengthening adversarial alignments, pushing global trade further away from the dollar, and emboldening leaders like Putin and Orban.
  • [19:49, Susan Glasser]: “Imagine a much closer partnership, both strategic and economic, between our main adversaries in the world, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. That's already been happening with great speed.”

Trump’s Lack of Policy Vision and Threats of War Crimes

• No Real Ideology – Just Instincts:
  • Trump’s Iran fixation is rooted in decades-old grievances, not actual strategy.
  • [23:51, Susan Glasser]: “Donald Trump doesn't have a foreign policy ideology... but he does have visceral feelings that have been with him for decades. ...The kind of brain of Donald Trump was formed around the idea that, you know, Iran and this theocracy had sort of screwed the global superpower...”
• Threatening War Crimes:
  • Trump threatened to bomb Iran’s power grid—an act that would constitute a war crime under international law.
  • [27:04, Susan Glasser]: “The President of the United States taking a cause that many Americans might agree with and threatening war crimes. And that is what bombing Iran’s electric stations would be.”

Domestic Fallout and Department of Justice Corruption

• Potential DOj Shakeup:

  • News breaks that Trump is moving to replace Attorney General Pam Bondi with Lee Zeldin—because Bondi wasn’t “lawless” or partisan enough for Trump.
  • Glasser warns this is another step toward full-scale politicization and weaponization of the Justice Department, further abandoning impartial rule of law.
  • [36:11, Susan Glasser]: “Her name will certainly go down in history as perhaps the single most destructive attorney general ever in the history of the United States... what Pam Bondi has been doing at the Justice Department, which is eliminating the idea... that there is such a thing as independent, impartial justice in this country.”

• Explicitly Stated Domestic Priorities:

  • Trump said directly that, due to the costs of the war, the U.S. “can’t pay for Medicare, Medicaid, daycare... We have to take care of one thing, military protection.”
  • [54:34, Susan Glasser]: “I actually have a theory of the case here... Where he ends up with Medicare, my theory is that he didn't mean to say daycare and he actually confused daycare and Medicare all along through that quote.”

• Extreme GOP Weakness in Congress:

  • Speaker Mike Johnson is described as possibly the “weakest speaker in American history,” folding quickly on shutdown/showdowns.
  • Glasser: Trump’s deep unpopularity (polling at 64% disapproval) isn’t translating to GOP breaks with him; he is increasingly detached from normal political constraints.
  • [56:53, Susan Glasser]: “Donald Trump, already historically unpopular, ...seems to be increasingly detaching from any interest in the normal pressures that politics would impose upon him. ...I worry that he's detaching in a way from our political system.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Trump’s “Delusional Force Field”

  • [05:30, Susan Glasser]: “He is who he is. But I think for Americans and for the rest of the world, seeing him operate in this kind of delusional force field is... unleashing consequences that are affecting things all over the world.”

• On Alliance Breakdown

  • [47:15, Glasser]: “That’s a consensus view among our friends in Europe...he continues to belittle Ukraine and to say very explicitly, Ukraine is not our war...”

• On the Failure to Support Iranian People

  • [31:47, Tim Miller]: “I want to shake the excited Iranian diaspora people and say, see, look, this is what he thinks of you. ...They will gladly bomb you back to the Stone Age to make themselves feel strong and tough. And it’s really tragic about the situation.”

• On American Decline & Artemis Launch vs. Past American Ambition

  • [61:01, Susan Glasser]: “...It’s a reminder about big ambition. And, you know, one of the things that feels so painful to me that it feels like the US has lost on some level is being the country of the future.... That, more than anything, was what powered the US...”

Key Timestamps

• 01:17 — Tim Miller opens the show with recent Trump speech and emotional “spleen venting”
• 02:42 — Glasser on Trump’s “mad libs” and rhetorical patterns
• 07:30 — Glasser: Trump’s delusions and misrepresentations about Iran’s regime
• 10:25 — Gas prices, magical thinking, and public confusion over the speech
• 13:37 — Incoherent war aims and administration dysfunction highlighted
• 23:51 — Glasser on Trump’s lack of genuine ideology and threat of war crimes
• 36:11 — Pam Bondi ousted as Attorney General; weaponization of DOJ
• 43:29 to 49:03 — NATO dysfunction, European panic, and US credibility in tatters
• 54:34 — Trump disavows healthcare/daycare spending, explicitly prioritizing military
• 56:53 — Trump’s unpopularity and the absence of normal political consequences
• 61:01 — Artemis II’s moon mission as a contrast to national malaise

Additional Memorable Segment

• “Cool Things” Amid Dark Times
  • Tim and Susan end on a bittersweet note regarding America’s scientific ambition:
    • Artemis II’s successful launch to the moon is framed as a glimmer of hope, albeit tinged with nostalgia and a sense of what America has lost.
    • [61:01, Susan Glasser]: “It’s a reminder about big ambition.... That was what powered the US through its incredible run... being the country of the future.”

Tone and Takeaways

Throughout the episode, both Miller and Glasser are candid, intellectually rigorous, and unsparing—there’s humor, but mostly a “dour” and urgent seriousness rooted in their concern for American and global democracy. Their analysis is grounded in visible recent events, personal observation, and deep political/historical context, making this a valuable listen—or read—for anyone wanting to understand the stakes and consequences of the Trump presidency’s chaotic wartime turn.

Recommended Actions:

• Read Susan Glasser’s related New Yorker piece: “Trump’s Case for War fails to mention how to Win It".
• Stay alert to further signs of creeping authoritarianism, policy incoherence, and the dangerous erosion of alliances and institutions.
• Hold leaders and media to account for spotlighting truth and diligently debunking “delusional force fields.”